- Increasing fears over the economic impact of measures which seem more likely to be necessary to prevent the spread of the Delta variant are hitting global markets. Risky assets such as stock markets and cryptocurrencies are sharply lower. The S&P 500 Index and WTI Crude Oil breached their respective 50-day moving averages yesterday.
- In the Forex market, the Japanese yen and US dollar are strong, while the New Zealand and Australian dollars and the British pound look especially weak.
- Cryptocurrencies are very weak, with Bitcoin trading below $30k and threatening to hit $20k or even $10k quite quickly, while Ethereum is even weaker. Almost every major cryptocurrency is down between 10% and 35% over just the past day.
- The Reserve Bank of Australia released its Monetary Policy Meeting Minutes a few hours ago, exhibiting a reduction in tapering which many analysts believe will now need to be reversed due to the worsening global coronavirus situation which may point to falling demand.
- Last week saw a sharp, fourth consecutive weekly rise in global new confirmed coronavirus cases, suggesting that the pandemic is advancing again due to the spread of the more highly infectious Delta (Indian) variant.
- It is estimated that 26.3% of the world’s population has received at least one vaccination against the novel coronavirus.
- Total confirmed new coronavirus cases worldwide stand at over 191.7 million with an average case fatality rate of 2.15%.
- The rate of new coronavirus infections appears to now be increasing most quickly in Algeria, Australia, Bangladesh, Burma, Cuba, Cyprus, Denmark, Fiji, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Portugal, Pakistan, Russia, Senegal, Spain, Vietnam and the United Kingdom.